Apple announces support for alternative app marketplaces, web browser engines in the EU with iOS 17.4
With iOS 17.3 shipped, Apple is moving on to iOS 17.4 beta. The first developer beta version for iPhone is...
Updated the link to a better source that gives a more detailed overview.
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Headlines like this should be illegal.
Apple is forced by the EU to stop being a dick and open up their ecosystem. Apple is also purposefully making the experience so terrible that nobody will dare use it.
I hope the EU sues and bankrupts them.
Don't get me wrong, I hope the EU slaps Apple on the wrist beats Apple up until they properly allow sideloading without the user having to go through more hoops than activating it with a warning and be done with it. Without any other consequences.
But I'd hate if Apple went bankrupt. Leaving only one major player in the mobile OS market? No thanks.
I cannot imagine a disaster large enough to bankrupt Apple at this point. They're one of the largest and most cash rich companies on the planet. They could probably start burning literal dollars to heat their offices and still take years to go bankrupt.
More competition in the mobile OS market would certainly be good, but I'm hesitant to even call Apple that. Their OS runs on exactly 2 devices (iPhone and iPad) from 1 manufacturer, it's not exactly an Apples (heh) to Apples comparison to Android. These days the only other option I'm aware of though is the various Linux phone projects, but all of those have some pretty serious usability problems so they're hardly a real competitor.
If Apple is fined for breaking these rules - the fine would be $80 billion. That would be two thirds of Apple's annual global net profits or $200 for every citizen in the EU.
It wouldn't bankrupt the company, but it would definitely hurt and they don't want to pay that.
Their OS runs on exactly 2 devices (iPhone and iPad) from 1 manufacturer
It runs on the primary device for over a billion people. Which means supporting it, for app developers, isn't really optional at all assuming you want your app to be available to all users.
This isn't about users, it's about EU based businesses. If you run a hotel for example, you need to be on iOS with some kind of app (obviously it could be a web app).
You know what will happen? I do. Apple will leave Europe
Want side loading? Buy android. That’s your choice.
Apple is testing the limits but will finally comply with the regulation by opening without gatekeeping.
They try of it pass, it pass and if it doesn't, they comply.
Very few who read the headline will even know the EU exists. So yes it's needed.
And the EU should sue as they have before for anticompetitive practices against many corporations for doing the very same thing. That's how the EU works and it actually produces change unlike the shitty USA.
